Player-piano.



J. LEISGH.

PLAYER PIANO.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 20, 1911.

Patented July 8, 1913.

3 SHBETSSHEET l.

J. LEISGH.

PLAYER PIANO.

APPLIOATION FILED SEPT. 20, 1911.

Patented July 8, 1913.

5, a 55 I i" I Mm Kg cozlumsm PLANOGRAPH c0., WASHINGTON, D c.

J. LEISGH.

PLAYER PIANO. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 20, 1911.

' Patented July 8, 1913.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH LEISCH, OF TRYON, NORTH CAROLINA, ASSIGNOR TO THE JOHN CHURCHCOMPANY, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

PLAYER-PIANO.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 8, 1913.

Application filed September 20, 1911. Serial No. 650,390.

To (4 whom 2'6 may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH Lnrsor-r, a citizen of the United States, anda resident of Tryon, in the county of Folk and State of North Carolina,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in. Player-Pianos, ofwhich the following is a full, clear, and. exact description, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisspecification.

My invention relates to player pianos in which the piano keys areconnected with a series of power pneumatics, which are operatedmechanically by pneumatic power, released by the exposure of openings ina tracker board by the movement of specially prepared slotted orperforated sheets of music, which are propelled over the tracker boardto actuate the pneumatic devices.

In player pianos as heretofore constructed, the individual piano actionis effected by the operation of its respective bellows or diaphragmpower pneumatic, in which the bellows or diaphragm is actuated by asingle variation of the pneumatic pressure on the movable memberthereof, and as a result, a uniform stroke of the piano strings only canbe obtained without accentuation, and the tones are only capable ofcontrol by a variation of pressure created in the air chest, or by aduplication of pneumatics, or by the ordinary piano pedals.

It is the object of my invention to produce a mechanism in which theuniformity of stroke on the strings may be elfected by a duplex actionof the bellows or diaphragm power pneumatic, without the necessity ofincreasing the pressure above or below atmospheric in the air chest ofthe player piano, or a duplication of the pneumatics, whereby the tonesmay be accentuated in the same way that they are accented by the humanoperator in striking the piano keys in the ordinary use of theinstrument.

The invention consists of that certain novel construction andarrangement of parts to be hereinafter particularly pointed out andclaimed, whereby a duplex action is effected on the movable member ofthe pneumatic under uniform conditions of pneumatic pressure by theapplication of suction on one side and compression simultaneously on theother side of the movable member of the pneumatic, either pressure to begoverned by regulators of a well known construct'ion, to produce eitherloud or soft elfects, the regulators being so arranged that the operatorof the player piano can produce any desired strength of tone or regulatethe same to any desired degree, while at the same time accentuating suchtones as may be desired.

In the drawings, Figure 1 represents a diagrammatic view of theassembled player piano equipped with my invention. Fig. 2 is a crosssectional view through the pneumatic chest, taken in a vertical plane.Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view, taken through the bellows of theplayer piano. Fig. l is a partial cross sectional view taken on the line4:, 1, of Fig. 2.

Referring more particularly to the draw ings, 1 represents the outlinesof a piano player, and 2 the tracker board of the same. The trackerboard is provided, as usual, with the necessary passages over which theperforated music sheet passes, to which tracker tubes 3 are connectedleading from the tracker board to one of the vacuum chambers in thepneumatic player chest, which as a whole is designated by the numeral 1.

Each tracker tube 3 is connected to a primary pouch 5 located along thebottom of the primary vacuum chamber 6, which is common to all of thepouches. The tracker tubes are also each provided with the bleed opening7 into a vacuum chamber 8, so that the vacuum of the chest is maintainedin the tracker tubes. Directly over each pouch 5 is located a primaryvalve 9, comprising a bottom disk 10, an upper disk 11 connected by thestem 12, the two disks opening and closing the ports 13 from the vacuumchamher 6 to the outer air. In their normal positions, the disks 10 ofthese valves rest on the deflated pouches 5, and the upper disks 11close the ports 13. Connected to each port 13 is a passageway 1a whichextends to the ports 15, opening into a secondary vacuum chamber 16, inwhich are located the secondary pouches 17, which operate the valves 18opening and closing the ports 19 between the secondary vacuum chamber 16and the passageways 20 which lead to and open into the pneumatics 21. Intheir normal position, the valves 18 are seated against the wall of thevacuum chamber 16, closing the ports 19, and with the ports 22 betweenthe passageways 20 and the air chamber 23 open, and thus the pneumatics21 are in inactive position.

The construction so far described involves one of the ordinaryconstructions for the double valve player piano action, and to aconstruction of this kind I prefer to apply my invention, although, aswill be seen, the invention is equally applicable to other arrangementsof the double valve construction, and is also equally applicable to thesingle valve construction in which only tracker tubes and primary valvesare employed and the action of the primary valves controls thepneumatics.

As is well known, the operation of the construction above described isas follows: When any of the tracker tubes are open to the atmosphere byreason of the perforations in the music sheet passing over the openingsin the tracker board, atmospheric pressure takes the place of thevacuum, in the particular tube and the pouches 5 covered by said tubesare at once inflated, the valves 9 raised, and atmospheric pressureadmitted to the passages 14- which actuates the pouches 17 to open theports 19 and close the ports 22, so that the passages 20 thus open tothe vacuum chamber 16 are subjected to the suction of the vacuum, andthe movable members 2st of the pneumatics 21 are raised. and theextensions 25 from the movable members of the pneumatics contact withtheir respective lugs 26 on the abstract of the wippen 27 ot the pianoaction to actuate the selected piano strings. This connection betweenthe pneumatics and the piano action is frequently accomplished byconnecting links, but I have so arranged my series of pneumatics that Iam enabled to apply the movement of the pnemnatics directly to the pianoaction, as illustrated in Fig. 2. In this figure, I have shown the upperpneumatic in action with the two other pneun'latics illustrated ininoperative position, and it will be understood that, owing to lack ofspace in the pneumatic chest, the pneumatics are not placed in astraight line side by side, but are staggered in groups of three, asindicated in Fig. 1 oi the drawings.

In order to apply my invention, which consists as heretofore stated inconstructing the apparatus so that, when desired, the movable member ofthe pneumatics may be actuated simultaneously both by pressure belowatmosphere on one side and pressure above atmosphere on the other,whereby duplex action of the pneumatics is obtained for the purpose ofaccentuation, I proceed as follows: The passages 1 1 are extended bycontinuations or branches 28 to make con nection with a supplementalvacuum chamber 29 through ports 30 which are each controlled by a floatvalve 31, provided with the valve disks 32, 33, so that the valve disksshall be free to move in either direction, and one or the other end ofthe port shall be open when atmospheric pressure is admitted to thevacuum chamber 29 at the same time that it is admitted. to the passages14; but so that when the atmospheric pressure is not admitted to thechamber 29, and my improvements are out of operation, each disk 32 willclose each port 30.

Connected to each port 30 intermediate the opening into the vacuumchamber 29 and the passages 28, is a passage 34:, which leads to a pouch35 in a second supplemental *acuum chamber 36 common to all the pouches.A series of pistons 37 are mounted in the top of this vacuum chamber,which are provided with a lower disk 38, which rests on the pouch and isadapted to be raised by the raising of the pouch. The heads 39 of thesepistons engage the valves 4.0 which are located in the ports 4-1 openinginto the compressed air chamber 412. These valves 40 are provided withthe disks 13, H, the upper one of which closes the port into thecompression chamber, while the lower disk 4% normally opens to the outerair chamber or port 411, with which passages 4:5 are connected leadingto the pouches 16, which are located under the movable member 2 1 ofeach pneumatic 21. Normally these passages being open, the pouches -16are deflated.

Atmospheric pressure is admitted to the vacuum chamber 29 for thepurpose of accentuation, preferably by means of a slot in the musicsheet passing over a vent in the tracker board connected by asupplemental tube 53 to the vacuum chamber 29 through a vacuum chamber49 and a pouch 52 which controls the valve 50 for port 48 in the sameway that the primary val vcs are controlled. The lower disk 51 of thisvalve rests on the pouch 52 and thus operates the valve to open thepassage at? to the outer air when the tracker board slot is reached,which connects with he vacuum chamber 29. Instead of operating theconstruction through the tracker board, a valve operated by hand mayalso be employed.

Since both air and vacuum pressure are employed, a specially constructedbellows, particularly illustrated in'Fig. 3, is provided for creating avacuum in the vacuum reservoirs 5%, from which it is conveyed by tubes55 to the vacuum chambers in the player chest, the compressed air beingdelivered by the same bellows into a con'ipressed air reservoir 56, andthence into regulators 58, illustrated diagrannnatically by passages 57in Fig. 1, and from said regulators through air trunks 59 into thepressure chest of the player chest. This specially constrncted bellows,as illustrated in Fi 3, comprises a centrally movable member (30 and thefixed members 61 and 62, the centrally movable member 60 being operatedby the connecting links 63 connecting same with the foot pedals G l. Thebellows members are inclosed with the usual bellows folds (35. In themovable member a series of openings (36 are provided, closed by thevalve GT. In the fixed member 62, openings (8 are provided, closed bytlievalve 69, and in the opposite member 61 a series of openings 70,closed by the valve '71. The openings 68 open into the outer air, whilethe openings 70 open into the bellows reservoir 5st, which hasconnection, as heretofore Stated, with the vacuum chambers of the playerpiano chest. In the frame 61 and 62, connected recesses 72 and 73 areprovided, the recess 72 having openings 74 into the bellows compartmentclosed by the valve 75, while the other recess or channel 73 hasopenings into the reservoir 56. The pressure on this reservoir iscontrolled by a spring 76, while from the joint passageway 72, 73, aport 77 is provided into the controller box 58, with a valve 78controlling this port and regulated by the spring 79, and from thecontroller 58 the air trunks 59 lead to the compression chambers of thechest. A spring 80 normally holds the movable plate (30 of the bellowsagainst the fixed plate 61. By actuating the foot pedals, this plate isactuated to draw air from the reservoir 54: and to deliver thecompressed air through the passages 72, 73, to the compression bellows5G, and thence regulated by the tension of the spring 79 into theregulator 58. A spring 81 is located in the vacuum reservoir 5% toregulate the amount of the vacuum pressure. In this way, the movement ofthe foot pedals supplies both vacuum and compressed air.

It will. be obvious from the foregoing description, that the playerpiano can be operated for ordinary playing-without bringing into actionmy invention; but if the performer should desire to accent a particularnote or chord, he could do so by bringing into use the extra pressure inthe pouches l6 which are situated immediately underneath the movablemembers of the pneumatics, and into which air pressure is admitted fromthe compressed air chamber 42 as heretofore described. This action ofthe pouches 116 is simultaneous with the suction through the passages20, and a stronger stroke is given to the hammer of the piano action.

As heretofore suggested, it is very evident that many modifications ofmy invention may be made without departing from its spirit and scope,and I do not, of course, wish to be confined to the details shown, theessential features of my device being the independent control of, andthe application to the opposite side of the power pneumatic movablemember of pneumatic power of the opposite sign to that used for directworking of said power pneumatic, and this for purposes of accentuations,and I do not wish to be limited to any specific system of vacuumchambers, pressure chambers and valves. It is my purpose to set fort-hin the claims that follow, those essential features as stated.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a pneumatic action for player pianos, a series of pneumatics,adapted when operated to operate the piano action, movable members forsaid pneumatics, and means whereby the movable members may be operatedsimultaneously by suction and air pressure on opposing sides of saidmembers and independent means of controlling the suction and thepressure.

2. In a pneumatic player piano, a series of pneumatics adapted whenoperated to operate the keys of the piano, movable members for saidpneumatics, means whereby the movable members are operatedsimultaneously by suction and air pressure forces on opposing sides ofsaid members and means for cutting off one of said forces.

3. In a pneumatic player piano, a series of pneumatics adapted whenoperated to operate the keys of the piano, movable members for saidpneumatics, means whereby the movable members are operatedsimultaneously by suction and air pressure forces on opposing sides ofsaid members, and means for cutting off one of said forces, with meansfor controlling said out off.

4r. In a player piano, a series of pneumatics, with vacuum chambers andpouches and valves for controlling the suction in the pneumatics, with asupplemental vacuum chamber and a series of pouches and valves, and acompressed air chamber, with means for actuating parts of thesupplemental series at will to apply the compressed air to pneumaticsunder suction, to increase the strength of the stroke thereof.

5. A player piano, comprising a tracker board, tracker tubes pianoaction, a pneumatic player chest, vacuum chambers in said player chest,an air pressure chamber in said chest, a series of pneumatics adaptedwhen operated to operate the action of the piano, a series of poucheslocated under the movable member of the pneumatics, with passagestherefrom to said air pressure chamber, an auxiliary vacuum chamber, connections therefor with the tracker tubes and means for admittingcompressed air into the pneumatic pouches, upon release of the vacuum inthe auxiliary vacuum chamber.

6. In combination with a player piano, having a series of pneumatics tooperate the keys of the piano, of a series of pouches situated undersaid pneumatics and adapted to raise same when said pouches areinflated, an air pressure chamber connected to said pouches andcontrolling means whereby the pouches may be inflated or not accordingas it is wished. to reinforce the action of the player piano in thepneumatics actuated by vacuum pressure.

7. The combination with a player piano, the action of which is operatedby a series of pneumatics, of means whereby said pneumatics may beoperated with both suction and air pressure applied simultaneously,tracker tubes, connections therefor with the suction and pressure means,and means whereby said connections may be cut ofi" from said pressuremeans and released at will.

8. In a player piano, a series of movable members operating the pianoaction, a duplex system of pneumatics applied to the se ries of movablemembers sources of supply of rarefied and compressed air to said system,each system with an independent operating means, said duplex systemsoperated by the application of suction and air pressure to said seriesof movable members simultaneously.

JOSEPH LEISCH. Attest:

R. P. HAneI'r'r, ANNA F. DIENST.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

